Art Clokey produced this series of clay animated shorts for Creator/{{NBC}} in UsefulNotes/TheFifties after screening his student film ''Gumbasia'' for Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox. Clokey also performed some of the character voices.

Gumby himself was portrayed as a young boy capable of changing his shape at will. He also could walk into books and participate in the stories therein. His friends included Pokey, a red horse; Prickle, a "prickly" yellow dragon (except for the episodes [[DinosaursAreDragons where he self-identified as a dinosaur]]); and Goo, a blue female character who rather resembles a small sea lion with a blond wig (WordOfGod said she's a "[[OurMermaidsAreDifferent gooey blue mermaid]]"). Gumby's foes, the Blockheads, never spoke.

The character debuted in 1956, as a segment of ''The Howdy Doody Show''. He was successful enough to receive his own spin-off show. The original ''Gumby'' shorts aired on NBC in 1957. After the series' network run ended, Clokey bought back the rights to his characters and produced new ''Gumby'' episodes for UsefulNotes/{{syndication}} in UsefulNotes/TheSixties and UsefulNotes/TheEighties. A Gumby direct-to-video movie was released circa 1995.

Gumby's 1980's resurgence in popularity was most likely attributable to a series of sketches on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' depicting Gumby (played by Creator/EddieMurphy) and Pokey (played by Joe Piscopo) as actually being old-time Jewish vaudeville stars themselves playing parts. These sketches birthed the {{Catchphrase}} "I'm Gumby, dammit!"

Bizarrely, ''Gumby'' was turned into the mascot for a [[http://www.gumbyspizza.com/ pizza chain]] catering to [[WackyFratboyHijinx college]] towns. They name a fair amount of stuff after characters in the series (e.g., Pokey Sticks), and the green, stretchy one himself appears on their boxes.

In 2015, the Creator/JimHenson Company made a deal with Clokey's estate to produce a new Gumby series.----

!! This series provides examples of:

* TheAce: Gumby, naturally.* AcidRefluxNightmare: One cartoon has Father Time accidentally causing various time-related problems for the world because he ate too many sweets before bed.* AIIsACrapshoot: Every time Gumby tries to use [[TincanRobot robots]] to help with the house, help with the farm, or speeding up production of ''Goo's Pies'', they either malfunction, the chicken pecks at the keys of the computer controlling them, or [[ThePrankster those pesky Blockheads]] are messing with the remote.* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation* AnimatedSeries* ArtEvolution: Gumby started with out small, round eyes, that had little, red beads for pupils, no eyebrows, and the inside of his mouth was the same color of his skin rather than being black. Same thing with Gumbo. Merchandise today has Gumby with red eye pupils again.** In the '60s series, Goo looked more like a sea lion. In the '80s series, she looks more like a mermaid.* BigEater: Pokey.* BullyingADragon: Literally occurs in "The Elephant and the Dragon". Both creatures work for a storybook king (the Elephant as manual labor, the Dragon as a castle guard), but the Elephant keeps picking arguments with the Dragon. This pisses off the Dragon, who torches people's houses with his his breath. To stop their arguing, Gumby uses a back-hoe to do the Elephant's job just as efficiently and without arguing with the Dragon (and without torched houses). The Elephant takes the hint and apologizes for causing so much trouble.** As for what they were fighting about, the Elephant keeps asserting that dragons are mythological, and therefore shouldn't exist. The Dragon torches houses to prove that he's real.** Another instance is in "Prickle's Baby Brudder", where Prickle's little brother (who is a giant dragon from the book 'Saint George') comes to hide from the angry villagers, who accuse him of burning down the village. They soon realize it's actually lightning doing the scorching, and set up a lightning rod to fix the problem.* {{Catchphrase}}: Pokey's "Holy Toledo! / Holy Cachinas!" and Prickle's "Oh, dinosaur chips!"* ComicallyMissingThePoint: May or not be intentional. In the movie, when Gumby discovers that [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Lowbelly cries pearls whenever Gumby performs with the Clayboys]], his first response is: "But our music isn't sad!"* CoolOldGuy: Professor Kapp and Gumby's father, Gumbo.* CoolTrain: A number of model trains in the franchise are able to travel wherever they want, carrying their tracks wherever they go. This was prominently featured in episodes like "Train Trouble," "Point of Honor," "Tricky Train," "Wild Train Ride" and "Just Train Crazy."* CuteMonsterGirl: Gumby has roughly the same slab-shaped body as his father, but his mother has a round head with blonde hair on a body that has breasts. [[PantslessMalesFullyDressedFemales And she wears clothes.]] She's not cute by the standards of most entries on this page, but she's far more human-shaped than the rest of her family.** This is actually entirely justified. Gumba has a human mother, which explains why she's human-shaped, but she married an entirely clay man, so producing basically entirely clay offspring really isn't unusual. (This gets even freakier when Gumbetta, Gumby's aunt, arrives with her human husband and their [[HumanoidAbomination very creepy]] [[HalfHumanHybrid mostly-human children.]])* DeadpanSnarker: Pokey.* DerangedAnimation: Art Clokey briefly experimented with LSD in the '60s.** After he made the classic Gumby shorts and had sworn off drugs by the time he returned to film-making. The claymation was still weird though.* DinosaursAreDragons: In addition to the general confusion about which Prickle is, in the episode "Lost Treasure" (Episode #7 of the '80s "Gumby Adventures"), he outright says: "Stand aside, my friends. As the only dinosaur, AKA dragon, in this room, I shall wake up these beans."* DrunkOnMilk: Gumby ends up stunned and stiff as a board if he drinks too many milkshakes (especially if there's ''ice cream'' in them), since his clay body can't handle the cold. This was shown in the episodes ''Little Lost Pony'' and ''The Blockheads.''* TheEeyore: Pokey, but it depends on the episode.* EraSpecificPersonality* EverybodyLaughsEnding: "A Dolly for Minga", "The Best on the Block", "Mirror-aculous Reocovery", and many more.** Takes a turn for the disturbing in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3iVfq47H_k All Broken Up]]"... The Blockheads develop a method for shattering Goo to pieces: using a gong. Gumby manages to get her back together with a sonic vibratron and shatters the Blockheads in retaliation with it, only to find out he ''re-shattered'' Goo into a pile of clay pieces. Cue Pokey Gumby and Prickle laughing over the shattered remains of their friend:--> '''Gumby:''' Oh, no! This is a day when everything's ''[[JustForPun gong]]'' wrong!"--> '''Pokey, Gumby, and Prickle:''' Ha ha ha ha ha ha!* EyePop: Any cast member especially Pokey, whenever he's surprised or gets scared.* {{Foil}}: The [[DeadpanSnarker cynical]], {{cowardly|Sidekick}}, [[TheDragAlong content-at-home]] Pokey is a foil to Gumby, the [[ChronicHeroSyndrome plucky]], [[ThePollyanna optimistic]], {{Determinator}}, and vice-versa.* ForceFeeding: One episode had Gumby constantly mooching snacks from his friends, then he has a nightmare about being force-fed ice-cream, soda, and hamburgers by a humanoid Pokey.* FourFingeredHands: On the human characters and some clay characters.* FourPhilosophyEnsemble:** '''The Optimist:''' Gumby.** '''The Cynic:''' Pokey.** '''The Realist:''' Prickle.** '''The Apathetic:''' Goo.* {{Flynning}}: Any time Gumby picks up a sword, which seems to be a lot.* GoshDangItToHeck: Prickle often said, "Aw, dinosaur chips!" whenever he was frustrated or annoyed. Other interjections commonly heard: "Gee," "Oh my!" and "Golly!"* HappilyMarried: Gumby's parents.* HeterosexualLifePartners: Gumby and Pokey.* {{Housewife}}: Gumba, Gumbo's wife, and Gumby's mother, to the extreme.* InterspeciesRomance: Gumby's aunt Gumbetta and her (apparently) human husband. Complete with HalfHumanHybrid cousins.** Also Goo and... whoever the episode calls to action.** Gumby's gradmother is human, and because Gumba and her sister are both more humanoid than the other clay-people, I think it's pretty safe to assume...* KnightInShiningArmor: Gumby.* LivingToys* LogicalWeakness: Gumby has problems in extreme cold and heat, being clay and all. He either freezes or melts; but if he wasn't clay he wouldn't be able to shapeshift. In the earlier episodes, Gumby was reminded to take his "Gumb-o-meter", a thermometer to let anyone know that his temperature was too hot or too cold.* {{Long Runner|s}}* LovableCoward: Pokey.* MagicRealism* MediumBlending: In a few of the '50s-'60s episodes, particularly including "Hidden Valley," some stop motion shots cut to live action shots.* TheMovie: It was ambitiously titled ''Gumby 1''.* MundaneFantastic: Despite being shapeshifting clay animals and people who live in a toystore and go into books where they have fantastic adventures, Gumby and his friends are actually pretty average kids who play in a band together.* NiceGuy: Gumby.* NoDialogueEpisode: Several shorts from the '50s were these, along with a few in the '80s.* OutOfCharacterMoment: A few episodes have these. Examples include "Point of Honor", which had Gumby and Prickle as bitter rivals dueling for Goo's favor, and "Goo for Pokey" had Goo [[StalkerWithACrush chasing Pokey everywhere.]]* PortalBook: Gumby and his friends could step inside books and meet the characters of many different eras and titles.* PowerPerversionPotential: Gumby and all other clay people have unlimited shapeshifting abilities. This sometimes applies to Pokey, Prickle, and Goo as well.* PublicDomainCharacter: In some of the Portal Book episodes. One episode, for instance, had Gumby and his friends encountering Literature/DonQuixote.* {{Revival}}: The '60s and '80s series.* RubberHoseLimbs* ShoutOut: Most of the books that Gumby and the other characters go to are RealLife books. Notice the titles!** The Gumby Adventures episode "Gumbitty Doo-Dah" has [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Gumby dressed up as Eddie Murphy]].* ShrinkRay: Professor Kapp's "Shrink-A-Dink".* SouvenirLand: Pumpkin Land.* SphereEyes: Pokey.* StalkerWithACrush: Goo is this towards Pokey in the "Goo for Pokey" episode.* StopMotion* SwissArmyTears: In "Gumbot", Goo's tears revived a "robotized" Gumby.* TalkingAnimal: Pokey, Prickle, Denali the mastodon, and Tillie the hen.* TechnicalPacifist: Gumby never goes looking for a fight, but when it's necessary, he can whup anyone's ass.* TailfinWalking: Goo tends to get around like this in the 1980s series. (In the 1960s series, she just slides from place to place on her belly)* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: Goo's long hair and bow, Gumba's skirt and hairstyle, Tara and Ginger's dress-bodies, their "hair" and eyelashes. Minga's dress-body and bow. Everyone is male unless they have some kind of extra "female" characteristic.* ThoseTwoBadGuys: The Blockheads.* TotemPoleTrench: In "Wishful Thinking", Gumby and Pokey break into Prickle's house dressed as a ghost attempting to trick Prickle into telling them what he wished for on his birthday. Unfortunately, just as Prickle was about to tell them, Pokey lost his equilibrium causing Gumby to fall off his back and on top of Prickle. The fall caused Prickle to start screaming thinking the ghost had swallowed him.** Also in "Gumbastic," Gumby encounters a bunch of little flat clay circles spinning around, and he mashes them all into a large green circle that then becomes another Gumby (with red eyes, ala his merchandising appearances), whom then proceeds to [[LatexPerfection unzip himself]] to reveal two Blockheads-like characters with cylinder-shaped heads, stacked up in a FullBodyDisguise.* TrappedInTVLand: Many episodes involve Gumby and his friends walking into books and interacting with the characters. Unlike most examples of this trope, Gumby and co. can leave at will.* TricksterTwins: The Blockheads.* UnfortunateNames: Gumbo should in no way be confused with the thick, hearty Creole stew that shares his name.* TheVoiceless: The Blockheads.* VoluntaryShapeshifting* WidgetSeries----

!! The 1995 movie provides examples of:

* AnimeHair: Lucky Claybert.* BlindingBangs: Nobuckle.* BodyToJewel: Lowbelly, a skateboard riding dachshund, cries pearls whenever his master, Gumby, leaves [[spoiler: or changes shape when he performs with his band. This fuels the Blockheads' latest get rich quick scheme, which for some reason involves [[CutLexLuthorACheck making robot duplicates of Gumby's band]].]]* ConcertClimax: Actually, a music video climax (Gumby and the Clayboys have performed in a concert earlier in the film).* DisneyDeath: This happens to Goo, when she was kidnapped and frozen by the Blockheads, and later was saved by Gumby at the end.** At the end of the lightsaber fight between Gumby and his robot clone, the latter finishes it by slicing Gumby into pieces. Upon seeing this death, the Blockheads rejoice by dancing happily, but just then, Gumby comes back to life by ''transforming into miniature versions of himself,'' much to the Blockheads' surprise.* DownOnTheFarm: The title of the book where most of the movie takes place. After Gumby and Pokey have fixed everything up, Gumby crosses out the "Down" and replaces it with "Up" on his way back to space.* DroneOfDread: Happens during the scene where the Blockheads test their robot duplication machine on Lowbelly.* EpicFail: The robot waiter at the café always does this.** At the end, before the music video "Take Me Away" begins, Nobuckle accidentally jumps into a wagon after waking up, and rides on it crashing into the Clayboys.** Also, after "Take Me Away," Lowbelly rides his skateboard over to the Clayboys, but accidentally jumps in front of Gumby and pushes him on Fatbuckle's drum.* HarmlessFreezing: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]]. When Gumby and the Clayboys get kidnapped by the Blockheads, they become frozen solid after getting locked up in the refrigerator truck that the Blockheads stole and disguised as a KBLM-TV truck. Later, Gumby was thawed out when rescued by his friends and Claybert, and he wakes up alive and well, but unfortunately, the Clayboys melted and they have to be taken to Professor Kapp so their bodies have to be bulged up again. Then Goo gets kidnapped and freezes too, so Gumby must spend the entire climax to save her; eventually, Goo gets better after being rescued and thawed out.* IdiotBall: The movie borders on IdiotPlot.[[invoked]] The characters could practically end the plot about halfway into the movie. Goo ties them up, they shut down the Gumby robot and the fake clayboy robots. It could end there, right? But nooo, they literally ''leave the blockheads tied up'' and allow them to escape.** The characters were tossing an Idiot Ball back and forth before that, too:--> "But shouldn't we call the police?"--> "No time for that now."* LoanShark: The Blockhead's latest scheme involves running a predatory farm loan company.* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Lucky Claybert looks and talks a lot like Groucho Marx.* ReCut: In 2007, the movie received a 76 minute "director's cut," which strangely omitted certain scenes from the original 90 minute version. Cuts that create noticeable plotholes. The 2008 DVD release of the film included the cut scenes as "deleted scenes," which have to be watched separately from the rest of the movie.* SavingTheOrphanage: Gumby organizes a benefit concert to help some local farmers pay off their debts to the Blockheads.* ShoutOut: The lightsaber fight is an obvious homage to Franchise/StarWars.----